by Alan Gomez, USA TODAY

by Alan Gomez, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON - Republican senators insisted Wednesday that the Obama administration must secure the border before serious talk can begin on the future of illegal immigrants in the country.

The Senate's first hearing on proposals to alter the status of about 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. was a contentious one in which senators berated the Department of Homeland Security secretary and speakers were interrupted repeatedly.

Immigrant advocates lined up as early as 7 a.m. to get into the scheduled 9:30 a.m. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing

Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., opened the hearing by saying "now is the time" to reach a compromise on illegal immigration. GOP senators suggested such a compromise cannot come without a guarantee that the flow of more illegal immigrants into the country will cease.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., criticized DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano for not having her department do more to secure the nation's borders. He said the Obama administration is more interested in granting "amnesty" to illegal immigrants - referring to a proposed pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants - than fully securing the southwest border with Mexico.

"I have my doubts (the administration is) going to deliver on its promises," Sessions said.

Napolitano argued that the Obama administration, and others before it, have helped establish the largest contingent of law enforcement along the border in the country's history. That has led to more seizures of drugs and historically low levels of apprehensions of people illegally crossing.

"Too often the border security refrain simply serves as an excuse," Napolitano said. "Our borders have in fact never been stronger."

Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., questioned whether the department even has a reliable way of measuring whether the border is secure. Under an immigration proposal offered by a bipartisan group of senators, the border must be certified as secure before any of the nation's illegal immigrants can apply for citizenship. How that would be done is still being discussed.

Rep. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said border security may not be the biggest impediment to legislation. He said fixing the nation's guest worker programs could be the biggest roadblock to a compromise.

Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., agreed, saying dairy farmers in his state struggle to find workers since their work is year-round and guest worker visas are mostly for seasonal workers.

"If cows are milked seasonally, you'd have a lot of uncomfortable cows," he said.

The committee also heard testimony from Jose Antonio Vargas, a former reporter for The Washington Post who came out publicly as an illegal immigrant; Steve Case, the co-founder of America Online; and others on the various aspects of mmigration law.

As the first part of the hearing came to a close, Leahy spoke about the need to come together and forge a compromise despite differences. As he did, the lights in the committee room started going out.